Repurposed Heavy Metal Drawers

I started repurposing a couple short years ago, and this is my absolute fav item to date. These two sets of drawers were at a yard sale and hubby looked at me very weird when I said I wanted to buy them. These were listed for $10 total and I bargained for $6, and they threw in delivery! You can see why the former owners wanted them gone. I now keep my button collection in these drawers. They are a heavy metal – possibly used for auto parts in their former life. Thankfully, all the working parts (roller mechanisms) just needed a little lovin' to make them go round and round again.

First off, these obviously needed to be washed and sanded extensively. Inside and outside the drawers were scratches, rust, paint blotches, and yuck. There was a lot of old dirt and bug parts in all the drawers and frames.

This pic above gives another angle of how bad their condition was. I showed the pic of the drawer below with the spots inside to a painting pro and he said it was likely battery acid caused the spot, and I'd never be able to successfully paint or finish over it. He was wrong! Due diligence will get you where you're going, folks if the acid has not eaten completely through the item.

During the priming stage, I came upon a unique way to let the paint dry. I hung the drawers from the shelving in the garage with bungee cords. Worked fantastic, especially when weather was not so great.

I stenciled the top of this tower. The whole project took several weeks, as you can imagine. Wash, sand, wash, paint, sand, wash, paint, sand, wash, paint, decorate, sand again (in some cases, to fix my oops), decorate and seal. What I saved on the purchase, I spent on sand paper and paint, naturally.

Love this! I bought some old metal lockers last summer and wanted to do this to them. But I don't have a garage anymore and they got dropped off on my patio. They were SO heavy I couldn't move them. I ended up giving them away because I had no one to help me maneuver them. Your finished product makes me wish I'd found a way to keep! Great job.